K. Craig
Tessellated Inc, Indiana, United States
Keywords: High strength, polymer film, thermal conductivity, ballistic protection, lightweight
Tessellated Inc., in partnership with the University of Notre Dame, proposes a breakthrough class of ultra-strong, lightweight polymer nanocomposite films designed for multifunctional performance in diverse applications. Our innovation centers on the development of scalable polyethylene-based composites that achieve simultaneous improvements in mechanical strength, thermal conductivity, and radiation resistance. This is accomplished via a novel combination of directional polymer chain alignment and template-guided nanofiller self-assembly using a proprietary roll-to-roll thermal drawing process. Together, we successfully scaled production from the lab-scale to a prototype roll-to-roll system, producing 4-inch-wide films with exceptional tensile strengths of >4 GPa (up to 5.1 GPa) (Fig. 1), a property target informed by ongoing collaboration with body armor industry stakeholders. The light-weight and high-strength make our film superior to state-of-the-art materials. We have shown that replacing a Dyneema soft armor sheet with ours improved the ballistic protection by 50% in a 0.2-inch-thick hard armor plate with our material. This innovation can increase the protection level from NIJ Level IIIA (handgun rounds) to at least III (rifle rounds). The testing results have helped us form key partnerships with customers in the body armor, transparent armor, and construction materials industries.